Screensaver applications for electronic devices are well known. A screensaver application is a program or routine designed to protect a display from damage such as screen burn (i.e. the burning of a fixed pattern onto the display) as well as to conserve image quality of a display by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the associated electronic device is not in use. Computers have long used screen saver applications.
With respect to electronic devices constituting televisions and television system components, screensaver applications are also used. For example, some electronic devices such as DVD players/recorders have a screen saving function that is invoked when a user does not perform any input or action for a predetermined period of time (e.g. five minutes). The screen saver will blank the output to the television screen and begin to provide a floating image for display, such as a company logo or the like.
The screen saver image is normally a bitmap image that is typically stored directly in non-volatile memory that is part of the operating system of the electronic device. As such, the screen saver image is fixed and thus cannot be changed. When invoked, the screen saver extracts this bitmap image and feeds the image directly into a video decoder or on screen display (OSD) memory in the electronic device for presentation. It can therefore be appreciated that screensaver applications in such electronic devices are limited.